In 2018, as the Royal Air Force marked its 100th birthday, the INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR AND STRATEGY, SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS, held a conference on air power. We hear from a number of contributors to that conference.
(1) INTRODUCTION
PROFESSOR PHILLIPS O'BRIEN, Chair of Strategic Studies, SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS, on why we need to talk more about air power, the determinative force in warfare today.
(2) EVOLUTION OF THE REVOLUTION
Retired US Air Force LT GENERAL DAVID DEPTULA, principal air campaign planner for Operation Desert Storm (Gulf War, 1991) and now Dean, MITCHELL INSTITUTE OF AEROSPACE STUDIES, on the evolution of the air power revolution, the impact of stealth and precision-targeting technology, and whether space will become the new theatre of conflict.
(3) REFLECTIONS ON THE USE OF MODERN AIR POWER
SIR LAWRENCE FREEDMAN, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON, on the use of air power from the First Gulf War to the present day, the importance of integrating air power into the broader political and strategic objective, and why our attempts at predicting the future are necessarily flawed.
(4) WAR GAMING
PHILIP SABIN, Professor of Strategic Studies, WAR STUDIES DEPARTMENT, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON, on the importance of war gaming in modelling conflict - past, present, and future - and why its use is on the rise today.
(5) BACK TO THE FUTURE - DRONES & SCIENCE FICTION
ULRIKE FRANKE, Policy Fellow, EUROPEAN COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS (ECFR), on the increasing use of drones in military operations, and the importance of science fiction.
(6) LAWFARE - WEAPONISING THE LAW
Retired US Air Force MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES DUNLAP, Professor at DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, on 'lawfare', the ways in which the law is being used by both sides to a conflict to accomplish military missions, and the challenges in prospect as autonomous weapons acquire the ability to 'learn'.
(7) LAW IN THE CYBER AGE
Retired US Air Force COLONEL GARY BROWN, first senior legal counsel at US CYBER COMMAND, on legal challenges arising from the use of modern air power, including drones, why the development of an international protocol governing the use of offensive cyber activity is a priority, and whether giant robots are the future.
(8) AIR POWER, WAR & POLITICS
PROFESSOR MICHAEL CLARKE, defence analyst & former Director of the ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE (RUSI), on the political limitations of air power, the impact of Brexit, and how quantum computing will radically change the character of war.
(9) FRANCE'S AIR POWER CAPABILITY
Retired French Air Force LT GENERAL BRUNO CLERMONT, Senior Adviser to the Chairman of DASSAULT AVIATION, on French air power capability and European collaboration.
(10) AIR POWER IN THE 2011 LIBYAN CAMPAIGN
DR CHRISTINA GOULTER, Senior Lecturer & Head of the AIR POWER STUDIES RESEARCH GROUP, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON and Co-Director, SIR MICHAEL HOWARD CENTRE FOR THE HISTORY OF WAR, on why the use of air power in the 2011 Libyan Campaign can be considered a success, and the reasons for its not being adopted as a template for intervention in Syria.
(11) RUSSIA RISING - TACKLING THE NEW NORMAL
AIR COMMODORE DR FRANS OSINGA, Chair in WAR STUDIES and Head of the Military Operational Art and Science Section, FACULTY OF MILITARY SCIENCES, NETHERLANDS DEFENCE ACADEMY, on the crucial importance of European air power capability in an era where Russian behaviour has, once again, made the risk of inter-state warfare acute.
IMAGE | Ministry of Defence | Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
PRODUCTION | ChromeRadio for the INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR AND STRATEGY, SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS | Producer - Catriona Oliphant | Post-production - Chris Sharp.